The Longmont Downtown Development Authority would like the public's input on the possibility of a dismount zone on the sidewalks in downtown Longmont. To take the online survey visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/d6cg82a.

LONGMONT -- Should bicyclists and skateboarders be required to get off their wheels on the sidewalks of downtown Longmont?

That's a current topic of discussion among the Longmont Downtown Development Authority, Longmont city staff, the advocacy group Bicycle Longmont and others. The city council will asked to weigh in with its thoughts early in 2013.

Dismount zones in downtowns are not uncommon: The Pearl Street Mall in Boulder and Old Town Fort Collins are two nearby examples.

"It's something that has been talked about off and on since I've been here, so for about the past two years," said LDDA executive director Kimberlee McKee.

Bob Goff, owner of Abbondanza Pizzeria on Main Street, stands outside of his shop Friday, Dec. 14, 2012. Goff, who says he has seen customers leaving his shop barely miss being hit by cyclists, is also on the board of the LDDA or Longmont Downtown Development Authority.
(Elaine Cromie/Times-Call)

The plan currently being discussed would have the dismount zone be the sidewalks on both sides of Main Street between Third and Sixth Avenues. It also would include the sidewalks along downtown avenues, from Main to the alleys, and it would include the breezeways that connect Main to the alleys.

"We've just had a lot of complaints -- really about safety," McKee said. "My main thing is we want to remain bicycle friendly (as a downtown), we want to continue to encourage people to ride downtown, just not on downtown sidewalks.

"One of the things on our work plan for 2012 was to work on ways (for downtown) to be more pedestrian friendly and bike friendly. In our minds, we don't want to give the impression that it's a hassle to walk down here."

That said, McKee admits that there are opinions on both sides.

"A bicyclist almost ran over me on that sidewalk earlier," Lewis Fanatia, a Longmont resident, said Friday afternoon while standing on the sidewalk on the west side of Main Street in the 400 block. "You don't have to ride on the sidewalk on Main Street. The kids and I ride bikes all the time. There's bike lanes on all these side streets."

But 16-year-old Hazael Castilla, pulling up on a skateboard to cross Fourth Avenue and hitting the button to get the "walk" sign to cross, disagreed with Fanatia's support of a dismount zone.

Castilla said he frequently rides his board on the sidewalk through downtown to get to the bus stop near Third Avenue and Main.

In Fort Collins, large signs such as this one are painted on the pavement at the entrance to dismount zones. State and federal traffic laws also require signs to be placed on poles, according to Longmont traffic engineer Bob Ball. (City of Longmont, Courtesy photo )

"I think it would make it really hard for people to get around, because a lot of people use their bikes (in the downtown), not so much skateboards," said Castilla. "I'm new to town, but at least that's what I've seen."

A few weeks ago McKee; a couple of members of city staff, including traffic engineer Bob Ball; Buzz Feldman, a member of Bicycle Longmont's board of directors; and a Longmont Police officer who works downtown did a walk-around of the downtown to, among other things, explore places to install more bike racks.

She said that in about a one-hour walk-around, the group saw about two dozen bicyclists using the sidewalks along Main.

Ball said that he and his boss, Nick Wolfrum, the city's engineering services manager, took notice of the amount of sidewalk bike traffic.

"I think we realized after that walk-around that it was more of an issue than we thought before," Ball said.

Bob Goff, an LDDA board member and the owner of Abbondanza Pizzeria, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary on Main Street, said he's seen plenty of near-misses with people leaving his store with pies in their hands, only to have a bicyclist buzz by. This past summer, he said, he saw two bicyclists nearly clip McKee and her family as they were walking away from one of the LDDA's outdoor concerts on Fourth Avenue.

"It's not an issue of enforcement," Goff said. "Nobody's talking about having a cop stand around here handing out tickets. I'd just like to see downtown be more like a family zone. It's not a revenue issue that we're looking at -- it's a safety issue."

Bicycle Longmont board president Ryan Kragerud said he's appreciative of the LDDA bringing his board into the discussion, as it's obviously an issue his organization is interested in.

When the issue was first brought up a year ago there was an even split among Bicycle Longmont board members about whether a dismount zone was even needed, Kragerud said. But since then there's been a changeover in his board and he said that now, the majority seem to generally be against the idea, at least if there are fines involved for violating the rules.

But his board hasn't formally come down either way, yet, Kragerud said.

"We want to know, data-wise, whether there's a problem or a perceived problem," Kragerud said. "We really do think if an ordinance is going to accompany this there has to be more data."

The LDDA just recently put together an online survey it wants the public to weigh in on -- the link is http://tinyurl.com/d6cg82a. The LDDA has sent out a similar survey to all the downtown business and building owners and residents, seeking their input.

Ball said that it's city staff's intent to compile all the information and the survey responses and present it to city council in either late January or early February. At that point, it will up to the city council whether a formal ordinance is drawn up and what, if any, enforcement measures will be put into place.

The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that if a dismount zone is put into place, every effort needs to be made to educate the public before any tickets or fines start getting handed out.

Asked his personal opinion as an avid cyclist -- not as a representative of Bicycle Longmont -- Kragerud said he would see the usefulness of having a dismount zone put into place, provided there's plenty of opportunity for educating the public.

"I would say that a downtown dismount zone is somewhat in order," Kragerud said Friday. "These sidewalks are not as wide as they look, and then if you've got a door swinging out 36 inches ... "

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